Ryan Reynold’s R-rated superhero movie, Deadpool, has officially broken the Thursday night record for an R-rated movie as it takes in nearly $13 million.
R-rated films always have the disadvantage of losing a large portion of its potential audience, with U.S. theaters only allowing people age 17+ to see the film without a guardian (of at least 21 years old).
Deadpool was always set to be an R-rated superhero movie, but its promotion was so well-executed that we imagine there were many underage moviegoers who wanted to get in early to see the film Thursday night. But, it didn’t seem to matter as the film took in a massive $12.7 million, beating out the previous record holder The Hangover Part II by $2.3 million.
The foul-mouthed superhero was originally set to open to $55 million worldwide, but Deadpool is possibly looking at an estimated $70+ million over the holiday weekend. This would be a huge success for a film with a reported $58 million dollar budget.
We imagine the film’s promotion, which was honestly incredible, added much more to the studio’s budget, but even at a total cost of $80 million Deadpool would see a great return if this trend continues. There are reports that the film could see a $125 million worldwide box office take over opening weekend if it continues to do well.
Many studios thought it would be impossible to make a profit with an R-rated superhero movie. Disney is cranking out The Avengers and Iron Man sequels that break a billion, but they also cost $300 million to make/market. Deadpool is almost an indie-superhero movie, with a somewhat low budget, which is attracting a big budget audience.
As Deadpool quips in the movie, Fox kept the film cheap by not casting many X-Men.
It’ll be interesting to see if the average moviegoer heads to the theaters this weekend to see if they enjoy the merc with the mouth just as much as the diehard fans. Be sure to check out Hypable’s spoiler-free review of the film, as well as a look at the film’s post-credits scenes.